Indianapolis, Indiana (UHND) - Chris Thomas is now 5-0 in Indianapolis in his career. The 5th seeded Irish lead by senior Dan Miller's 5 three pointers upset the 4th seeded Illini of Illinois to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time under head coach Mike Brey and for the first time since 1987 with a 68-60 win.

Miller came out firing in the first half hitting all 5 of his three point attempts in the first 20 minutes as the Irish built a 47-34 going into halftime. Illinois made several runs in the second half, but Notre Dame always had an answer. That answer usually came in the form of their 6'8" senior guard Dan Miller. Miller finished the game with 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting.

The Irish also had a huge performance on the boards from their always improving freshmen phenom, Torrin Frances. While Frances struggled from the field unlike in the first round, he still added 14 boards. 3 assists, a block and a steal. Frances owned the glass in the second half and helped shut down Brian Cook on offense. Cook, a senior forward for Illinois and Big Ten Play of the Year, hit just 6 of 23 attempts and missed on several key opportunities down the stretch as did freshmen Dee Brown. Brown, a lighting quick guard, played out of control and missed several key layups in the final 5 minutes that could have greatly altered the outcome of this game.

Chris Thomas also played a fine game for the Irish. Thomas finished with 17 points and 5 assists while hitting 3 of 5 three pointers attempted. Joining Thomas as the third and last Golden Domer in double figures was Matt Carroll who was playing on an injured ankle. Carroll had 11 points in a gutty performance.

The team on the floor earlier today resembled the team that beat three top 10 teams in a week in December. The defensive effort could have been better in the second half, but the team was hungry on offense and won by 8 over a 4 seed with their leading scorer banged up. The defensive effort overall however was much better than the effort we saw down the stretch and in the Big East tournament when the Irish were surrendering gaudy point totals while losing 6 of their last 10 games in the regular season.

Advancing to the Elite 8 will be no easy task for Brey's Irish. Up next for the Domers will be #1 seed Arizona. Arizona got all it could handle and then some from the 9th seeded Bulldogs of Gonzaga on Saturday. Gonzaga took Arizona into double overtime and had a chance to win it as time expired but came up short in a 95-94 loss. The loss showed 'Zona is beatable, but it should also give the Wildcats some extra motivation for their next contest to prove they are for real.

It will a daunting tasks no doubt for Notre Dame to into Anaheim on Thursday to take on out one of the favorites to win it all, but if they come out shooting like they did against Illinois they have a chance. They should also watch the game tape of the Gonzaga-Arizona game and try to take advantage down low as Gonzaga did with its big men. Notre Dame doesn't have as good a down low presence as the Bulldogs do however. If Torrin Frances can play as he did in the first round, it should help open up the outside for Miller, Carroll, and Thomas to fire away.